Flat wire conveyer belt and cover plate therefor



N. S. HARTER Dec. 16, 1952 FLAT WIRE CONVEYER BELT AND COVER PLATETHEREFOR Filed Nov. 2:15, 1949 \t. Ell! ililillli llcl Na H 5. #49759,

2' H11 [HM Patented Dec. 16,. 1952 FLAT WIRE CONVEYER BELT AND COVERPLATE THEREFOR Noah S. Harter, Waukegan, 111., assignor to United StatesSteel Company, a corporation of New Jersey Application November 23,1949, Serial No. 129,121

2 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in flat wire conveyor belts andcover plates therefor.

An object of the invention is to provide flat wire conveyor belts thathave cover plates of improved construction which simplifies theirfabrication and installation.

A further object of the invention is to provide improved conveyor beltcover plates which have outwardly concave fingers adapted to engage theinner and under faces of pintle rods, whereby the plates can beassembled with the belt at the same time the pintle rods and links areassembled, or they can be sprung into or out of engagement after thebelt otherwise is assembled completely.

In accomplishing these and other objects of the invention, I haveprovided improved details of structure, a preferred form of which isshown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure l is a fragmentary top plan View of a conveyor belt which isequipped with cover plates that embody features of the presentinvention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the belt;

Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially on lineIII-III of Figure 1; and

Figure 4 is a perspective view of one of the cover plates apart from thebelt.

Figures 1, 2 and 3 show a conveyor belt which comprises a large numberof fiat wire links l and a corresponding number of pintle rods 12. Thepintle rods hingedly join the links in the usual fashion, and the beltcan be driven either from drums or pulleys or from sprockets, as knownin the art.

For some applications these belts preferably are equipped with coverplates, one such application being belts which carry glassware throughannealing lehrs. The cover plates prevent the relatively sharp edges ofthe links leaving indentations in the edges of glassware, which is softat the annealing temperature. I am aware of previous cover plateconstructions for belts of this type, but such previous cover plateshave been attached to the pintle rods by means which encompass theoutside and top of one or both rods. The belt illustrated has coverPlates l3 of sheet metal, such as steel. Each cover plate has a flatmid-section which overlies a link, and occupies substantially the spacebetween two pintle rods with sufiicient clearance alongside the rods forthe next link to pivot. For some applications, such as in glass lehrs,the plates preferably have perforations M.

In accordance with the present invention the fiat mid-section of eachplate has fingers l5 which depend from its edges. The fingers onopposite edges are staggered, and the fingers are concave outwardly fromthe plate. As Figure 3 best shows, the fingers engage only inner andunder faces of the pintle rods. The staggered relation of the fingersenables those on adjacent plates to intermesh.

These cover plates can be assembled with the belt in the usual way; thatis, when the pintle rods are inserted through the links, they can alsobe inserted past the fingers on the cover plates. Since the fingersengage only the inner and under faces of the rods and do not encompassthe rods, alternatively the plates can be installed or removed from thebelt by springing the fingers inwardly after the belt otherwise isassembled completely. This latter method of installing the platesenables the plates to be installed on previously manufactured belts, andalso facilitates replacing plates that become damaged.

Thus it is seen that the cover plates of the present invention have apositive engagement with the pintle rods along both edges, but theengagement is such that the plates readily can be sprung into or out ofengagement with the rods. In addition the plates are of a simpleconstruction that facilitates their fabrication over usual cover platesin which the fingers encompass one or both pintle rods.

While I have shown and described only a single embodiment of theinvention, it is apparent that modifications may arise. Therefore, I donot wish to be limited to the disclosure set forth but only by the scopeof the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a conveyor belt which includes fiat wire links and pintle rodshingedly joining said links, cover plates over said links comprisingfiat midsections and fingers depending from the edges of saidmid-sections, the fingers on opposite sides of the mid-sections being instaggered relation and being concave outwardly away from themid-sections of the plates, said fingers engaging the inner and underfaces of said pintle rods and the fingers along adjacent edges of theplates intermeshing.

2. In a conveyor belt which includes flat wire links and pintle rodshingedly joining said links, cover plates over said links comprisingfiat midsections. each of which overlies a link and occupiessubstantially the space between two pintle rods with sufficientclearance alongside the rods for the next link to pivot, and fingersdepending from the edges of said mid-sections, the 10 fingers onopposite sides of said mid-sections being in staggered relation andbeing concave outwardly, said fingers engaging the inner and under facesof said pintle rods and leaving the 4 outer and. upper faces free, andthe fingers along adjacent edges of the plates intermeshing.

NOAH S. HARTER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,354,553 Harter Oct, 5, 19201,686,533 Ronning et a1. .Oct. 9, 1928 1,758,397 Harber May 13, 1930

